My Social Dieting Experiment: Make Money by Losing Weight

Last week one of my girlfriends e-mailed me about joining DietBet, a social dieting platform where each person in a group puts $20 in the “pot” with the same goal: to lose 4 percent of your body weight in 4 weeks.

Last week one of my girlfriends e-mailed me about joining DietBet, a social dieting platform where each person in a group puts $20 in the “pot” with the same goal: to lose 4 percent of your body weight in 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks, winners (those who meet their goal) split the pot. So at the very least, if I make my goal, I’ll come out even.

We talked it over and thought at the very least we’d help keep each other accountable (since that’s the whole idea behind social dieting). The next few times we grab lunch during the week we’ll be good and eat salads, and when it comes to our weekly Bachelorette viewing parties we’ll nix the wine in favor of water and fruit. It sounds manageable.Related: Delicious Low-Calorie Desserts (Perfect for Social Dieting!)

After registering online, I had to take some photos of myself and the scale (yikes!), but luckily the site doesn’t share them with anyone, and no one in your group has to know your starting weight or your goal. How successful can I expect to be? Well, DietBet says that 90 percent of its users lose weight, but that doesn’t mean they all make money (since you can lose weight without meeting your goal), though social dieters who invite friends are 53 percent more successful. To put a damper on things, DietBet estimated that I have a 35 percent chance of reaching my goal. That’s… encouraging.Related: Cheap and Healthy Meals for Every Appetite

My plan of attack for the first week (which officially started yesterday) is to try and cut as much added sugar as possible from my diet. For me, breakfast usually has lots of added sugar, so I’m cutting it out of my morning coffee and I’ve stopped eating cereal opting for greek yogurt (without granola, my former crutch) instead.